Satellites will follow the Egyptian vultures from FYROM and Albania

19.08.2013

• Home
• Useful information
• Satellites will follow the Egyptian vultures from FYROM and Albania

In the beginning of August 2013, two Egyptian vulture chicks from FYROM and one from Albania were tagged with satellite transmitters under the LIFE+ project “The Return of the Neophron”.

 

Tagging in Macedonia was made from the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds (BSPB) and the Macedonian Ecological Society (MES). The marked Egyptian vulture’s chicks were from one nest in the southern part of the country and were named Ylin and Ylina. So far only one Egyptian vulture has been marked with a satellite transmitter in FYROM in 2011, again under the close collaboration of BSPB and MES. Unfortunately the young bird drowned while tried to cross the Mediterranean Sea to the wintering grounds in Africa. During the expedition in August 2013, a total of 5 nests from of the Macedonian Egyptian vulture subpopulation were visited, all of them confirmed as successful in July 2013. An alarming fact is that 4 out of the 5 nests were empty. The reason for that is still unknown, as no remains from the chicks were found in the nests or bellow them, in the same time it too was early for the chicks to leave the nests. According to Metodija Velevski, an expert on the species in Macedonia, this rate of failed nests is the highest observed in the country since 2006.

 

In  the same time, joint expedition of the Hellenic Ornithological Society (HOS) and the Association for Protection and Preservation of Natural Environment in Albania (PPNEA) tagged one more Egyptian vulture chick in southern Albania. This is the first satellite transmitter installed ever to an Egyptian vulture in Albania.

 

 

Telemetry of the Egyptian vultures on the Balkans provides the unique opportunity to follow them along the migration flyway, wintering grounds and mostly to understand more about the threats and mortality factors negatively affecting the population. You could follow the tagged Egyptian vultures under the LIFE+ project “The Return of the Neophron” from here.

Back